Why Launch a 64-Bit iPhone 5S? Think iPads and Macs

PC Mag’s Sascha Segan notes that one of the biggest advances in the iPhone 5S has no apparent reason to be there. That would be the 64-bit Apple A7 processor, which is Sagan contends is destined to be utterly under-used in the pocket-sized smartphone, being as the main reason to use a 64-bit processor is to address more than 4GB of memory, which just isn’t an issue on today’s iPhones and even iPads. However, he deduces that putting the A7 in the iPhone 5c is mostly a trial balloon for its inclusion in the fifth-generation iPad late next month, noting that Apple needs to update its iPad line for the holidays and will want to have a few weeks’ worth of breathing room after this week’s iPhone launch, but it needs to have new iPad products in stores by mid-November.

And then there’s the intriguing possibility of Apple setting the stage to switch to in-house designed A-Series silicon in Macs as well as iDevices.